Preparing For The Coming Coercion
The Spirit Of Antichrist is Coercion Part 2
Introduction
Last year, I
stood here and spoke to you about how the spirit of antichrist appears again
and again in history and seeks to mandate its will with coercion. I spoke about
how to identify that Spirit and why we should not comply with coercion. This
year I want to build on the same idea to look forward to how Christians can
respond to the trends we observe in our society.
If you read
the Bible, and I am sure most of you here do very regularly, then you will know
there are many passages which tell us to be good citizens, obedient citizens,
etc. But many Christians can forget that we are called to be good citizens of
two kingdoms, not just one. We are told to obey earthly authorities and seek to
be good neighbours and citizens, and we are also told to honour God with our life
and conscience and obey him above all else as citizens of heaven. We live in
the tension between these two truths. This tension is increasing because
Australia is becoming more hostile to Christian beliefs and teachings.
This is
creating a bit of a culture shock for Aussie Christians because Christians have
had it so easy in Australia for so long. Our faith was still being tested, it
was just being tested by ease and prosperity and abundance. It is very likely
that going forward it is going to be tested by the taking away of these things.
This is hard
for many Aussies Christians to accept, because we all just want to be good and
obedient citizens and we always thought we were part of mainstream society and we
just grew up with the belief that government could never be against us. But in
history this happens often, even in the Christian West, and therefore we need
to build new faith muscles that prepare us for the hard times coming. Australia
is becoming increasingly anti-Christian and more and more coercive, and because
of this, conflict with government commands is going to happen.
Let me
demonstrate: If you are commanded to call a boy a girl, or a girl a boy, and
therefore lie and blaspheme the image of God, will you do it? If you are told
that the Bible is hate speech will you stop sharing its words? Such ideas and
events are increasing, and the fat happy days of excess are fading, and more and
more your conscience is going to be tested by the sword of government, and you
need to be prepared for this, and for a peaceful and firm response like the
Apostles, “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather
than men” (Acts 5:29).
Are you
prepared for this? Are you? We are told to aspire to live a quiet life, but we
are not promised that we will have it. Are you prepared for what is very likely
coming? Today that’s what I want to help you be, prepared to for the coming
coercion. Let’s begin.
Increasing
Coercion – First I
want to establish why I am convinced that coercion is going to increase. I know
for some of you here I do not need to establish this, you can see what I can
see, maybe even more clearly. I am not a prophet and don’t claim to be one. I
don’t claim to have supernatural foresight anymore than any other reader or
preacher of God’s word does when he looks at the clear words of Scripture. I am
by specialty a historian. I observe the trends of history and when you watch them
closely you can see patterns, clear patterns.
The Bible
itself does this a lot. Much of the word of God is one writer reflecting on
what happened in a past era and learning from it, as Paul tells us, “11
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for
our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11).
The Bible
wants us to observe the patterns of history and learn from them, especially
those in the Bible.
The patterns
of coercion are building and they are obvious to those observing them.
History
helps us with our topic today, specifically, Irenaeus and his famous work Against
Heresies. Irenaeus describes well the final kingdom, and he was convinced
it would be Rome. Much of the early Church did, it fit the description so well.
He draws his description of the final kingdom from Nebuchadnezzars’ vision in
Daniel, this is what he notes.
“Daniel 2:33-34 Then afterwards, when interpreting this, he
says: And as you saw the feet and the toes, partly indeed of clay, and partly
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, and there shall be in it a root of iron,
as you saw iron mixed with baked clay. And the toes were indeed the one part
iron, but the other part clay. Daniel 2:41-42 The ten toes, therefore, are these
ten kings, among whom the kingdom shall be partitioned, of whom some indeed
shall be strong and active, or energetic; others, again, shall be sluggish and
useless, and shall not agree; as also Daniel says: Some part of the kingdom
shall be strong, and part shall be broken from it. As you saw the iron mixed
with the baked clay, there shall be minglings among the human race, but no
cohesion one with the other, just as iron cannot be welded on to pottery ware.”[i]
Daniel observes
that the final kingdom, the last one to rule the earth, will be a great
multicultural kingdom with one power ruling over the world, and ruling over the
mixed nations (Rev. 17:15-18 says the same thing).
But I want
to draw a different point for today. One thing we know from history is that
ruling over big mixed empires, where every nation wants to live their own way,
takes an iron first, and increasing power and coercion.
Much like we
do today, Irenaeus looked at what the Bible says about the final kingdom,
looked at the world in his day, and saw a lot of overlap. How could he not?
Rome was the original multi-continent spanning empire. In his day it would have
looked invincible.
Irenaeus
believed that Rome would be the final empire. It was exactly like the kingdom
Daniel described, a mixture of nations living together, under one powerful
beast, one powerful ruler. Strong, but fragile.
-
Strong,
because it was the military superpower of the world.
-
Fragile,
because many of the nations under its iron fist resented its rule.
What I want
to focus on is the similarities between this ancient pagan empire and the
increasingly pagan global empire that we live in today, the Anglo-American
empire.
The Tolerance
of Rome - Think
about this, Rome ruled over many people from all over the known world, and,
most people forget this, Rome was remarkably and famously tolerant. Romans were
proud of their tolerant society.
-
Marcus
Aurelius said, “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”
-
J
B Bury notes, “The general rule of Roman policy was to tolerate throughout
the Empire all religions and all opinions. Blasphemy was not punished. The
principle was expressed in the maxim of the Emperor Tiberius: ‘If the gods are
insulted, let them see to it themselves.’”[ii]
Many
Christians do not think of Rome as tolerant, because Rome persecuted
Christians. But if you read the accounts of this you will see this persecution,
though it could be severe, was sporadic and was often done at the instigation
of influential and wealthy Jewish leaders. We see this in the book of Acts, and
in the writings of the Church fathers.
The Romans’
did not care much about the intricacies of biblical law, we see this in the
Bible, as well.
Hatred
from Romans – However,
there were some things which could stir the Romans directly against Christians:
“Blaspheming”
Caesar - If you
refused to honour the cult of Caesar, some Emperors and some local governors
would turn against you for that. “The objection of the Christians—they and
the Jews were the only objectors—to the worship of the Emperors was, in the
eyes of the Romans, one of the most sinister signs that their religion was
dangerous.”[iii]
“Denying
the gods” – Denying
the pagan gods was also hated, “The populace felt a horror of this
mysterious Oriental sect which openly hated all the gods and prayed for the
destruction of the world.”[iv]
The Roman’s did not really care what gods you worshipped or did not worship,
just that you recognized the validity of other gods. If you said that there was
only one way to properly believe in one true God, they saw this as atheism, as
mentally deficient and therefore dangerous. This they did not tolerate.
They would
also not tolerate a people under their rule seeking to rule themselves. This
they crushed wherever it appeared.
Rome was an
empire of many peoples, and when many vastly different peoples mix together you
get friction, and it takes a strong and oppressive hand to hold down this
friction.
So, Rome was
tolerant, for the compliant.
In fact, if
you wanted to be left alone in Rome, then the more “Roman” you became, the
better off you would be. No matter where you were from, if you honoured the
cult of the emperor, did not criticize the religious practices of others, and
spoke Latin or Greek, or both, you would be left alone.
Does this
sound familiar? “When is Rome do as the Romans do.” And you will be fine. Claim
a unique source of truth and you were public enemy number one.
Tolerant
and Brutal – So Rome
was tolerant and liberal to the compliant. But if you transgressed their
cultural norms in the few areas where they said you could not go, the
tyrannical symbol of the cross hung over your heads reminding you of their
brutality to dissenters.
The cross
was a threat of excruciating death for non-citizens who troubled the Romans. And
it was just one of many brutal ways they could kill you.
Rome
tolerated the compliant, and furiously crushed all who they believed did not
fit with their “tolerant” ways.
I hope you
are starting to see parallels between our society and Roman society. Our
society might not be quite as harsh yet, but still there are similarities. Rome
was coercive because it was pagan and it ruled over many disparate peoples with
different ideas of how society should be run.
Our society
is increasingly pagan, and increasingly multicultural and therefore, we live in
a society where many disparate peoples with different ideas of how society
should be run live together under one ruling ideology. Call it globalism,
neo-liberalism, democratic socialism, cultural Marxism, whatever you like. It
is just plain old Satanism, and it will tolerate all kinds of vices and none of
the true distinctive virtues of Christianity - like the word of God being the
highest standard of truth.
The final
kingdom will be much like Rome, but so too will all multicultural empires. This
pattern keeps showing up in history.
So how do we
navigate this kind of society? Lucky for us, the Bible was written to people in
a similar situation, so we can learn from the Apostles, let’s have a look.
Bold Men
of God – We see an
example in Acts 5 where the disciples get caught between the concept of being
citizens of two kingdoms. They have just been arrested for teaching in the
temple, and imprisoned, and this happens,
“19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened
the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple
and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard
this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. 22 But when the
officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and
reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at
the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the
captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were
greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. 25 And someone
came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the
temple and teaching the people.” 26 Then the captain with the officers went and
brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the
people. 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council.
And the high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to
teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and
you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles
answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised
Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his
right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness
of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit,
whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:19-32)
I want to
draw out of this just a few basic principles to help you navigate the coming
increasing coercion.
Rely on
God (vv.19-21) – Not
just in name, not just in words, not just cliches. I mean really, truly and
genuinely ask God for big things in your life, the life of your family,
friends, church, community and nation. Why?
Because your
God is the God who can send a supernatural being, an angel, to sneak you out of
prison under the noses of the guards, without them even knowing what is
happening. That is your God.
The God of
the Exodus, the God of the conquest of Canaan, the God of Elijah and Daniel and
Ezekiel. The God of the resurrection!
Am I
promising that God is going to do this exact thing for you? No, God will answer
many of your prayers just as you asked, and many of your prayers otherwise, and
always according to his will. But if your God is the one who can do this, then
why be afraid of petty governors, counsellors, or whoever telling you to
transgress the will of God?
Practice
asking God to work in power in your life, and build your muscles of faith, you
are going to need them.
Be
Radical In Your Devotion To God’s Word (vv.29) – The Chief Priests had told the Apostles not to
preach in the temple, they ignored this got arrested, and then God told them to
do it all again. So they did. This is devotion. This is radical obedience.
The Apostles
were released the next time, after they were beaten. Their response to being
beaten for sharing the gospel was to celebrate God.
Be radical
in your devotion to peacefully obeying the Word of God.
Boldly
Proclaim The Gospel Often (30-31) – The disciples were commanded not to preach about Jesus of
Nazareth. In the middle of being grilled about breaking this command, they
preach the message of Jesus of Nazareth, again, “30 The God of our
fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted
him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and
forgiveness of sins.”
This is
boldness. This is strength. They knew that this could get them killed, yet they
did it anyway. This is why most of them were eventually killed. But remember,
their opponents needed to hear the gospel just as much as anyone else.
Are you this
bold to proclaim the message of Jesus, in the face of those who hate the
message the most? To tell them to repent, turn to Jesus and trust in him? Could
you do this?
Work In
Teams (vv.17-32) – And
lastly, don’t seek to do this alone. Whether you read this passage, or any
other passage in Acts, we see the Christians facing down opposition in groups
or pairs. It is not good for man to be alone, it is not good for Christians to
face coercion, or anything in life, like radical individualists.
The secret
to over-coming coercion is that there is no secret. What you need is to apply
to your life the same old-fashioned Christianity that was handed down by the
Apostles; trust and obey Jesus above all else.
That is the
key.
Conclusion
– Victory over Tyranny – We must remember that we are part of a faith that turned the cross, a
symbol of terror and oppression, into a symbol of hope and salvation. The
greatest terror made into the greatest joy. Think about that.
This
happened, because generations of believers clung to Christ and followed the
Apostles in their bold witness. This is our chance to continue their legacy,
let’s be bold and live this out. Let’s pray.
[i]
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book Five, Chaper 26, pg 513.
[ii] Bury,
J. B.. A History of Freedom of Thought (p. 17). e-artnow. Kindle Edition.
[iii] Bury,
J. B.. A History of Freedom of Thought (p. 18). e-artnow. Kindle Edition.
[iv] Bury,
J. B.. A History of Freedom of Thought (p. 18). e-artnow. Kindle Edition.
